Lustful Elephants Trumpet Spring (Live 6-12-21)

Guitarist Matthew Montfort was the inaugural performer of a series of online Alternate Reality Concerts from the Ancient Future on his birthday in February 2021. Ancient Future’s last pre-pandemic performance was in September 2019 at the Kentucky Mine Amphitheater in Sierra City, California. Indian tabla master Aditya Kalyanpur shared a video of that concert with Jhankar, an Indian arts organization in Ohio, and they came forth to sponsor a virtual concert featuring Kalyanpur, Montfort, and keyboard wizard Frank Martin in June 2021. Lustful Elephants Trumpet Spring (.) is the first release from the Alternate Reality concerts. It was composed by Matthew Montfort after studying Rag Basant, a springtime raga that captures the feeling of separated lovers longing to unite. The caption on an associated ragamala painting read: “Bound with a peacock’s face is as a flower. Elephant-like, he joyfully wanders in the forest among the gopis. Such is Basant raga.“ Montfort woke up in